Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Fog Bar and Restaurant - Prahran, Melbourne

Its never a relaxing holiday with us Empty Fridgers. My poor other half - he knows that there is no sleeping in, no lazing by the pool and no romance as such. Demos and I have travelled together on mini breaks but we have NEVER had a romantic holiday getaway by the beach. Although we blame the lack of a beach body, the palm trees we usually chase are those that line Rodeo Drive. Which is why we are off to Melbourne for this Easter weekend. One short plane ride away and your at the beck and call of wonderful rooftop bars, wonderful basement bars, late night wine bars and umm.. wineries. Im not going to lie, its a fun place for your favorite boozehounds, well that and there's plenty of dining gems to discover to.

Now a while ago, I had to fly to Melbourne on a day trip to work. I came up with strategies - yes, strategies. Im a strategic planner - when it comes to food of course, and most of my trips away do involve a high level of obsession as to where to eat. Needless to say, my flight got delayed (Of course I booked the earliest flight to fit in two breakfasts..) and when I left to go to lunch - i had walked all the way down Chapel St only to find that I left my wallet in the office.

Thank God for interstate friends who rescue sleep deprived disheartened eaters. We get to Fog and immediately I knew that this was exacly the place I wanted to be. Distincly cool interiors, a hip and not so corporate crowd (okay, it was a school night) and a beautiful bar.

Vino's and Veuve - oh my!

Fog has a very large dining area as well as an outdoor section, which I was told, get filled to the brim on weekends. Its such a lovely space, roomy and well laid out. To orientate us Sydneysiders, its just off the Prahan side of Chapel Street, on the very uber cool Greville Street. This place is super sleek, shiny black laquered columns - very sexy.. but now what about the food?

We started with the Spicy fried calamari with hot sauce, fire roasted peppers, chorizo and garlic aoli ($22). I was a bit apprehensive when I saw hot sauce, but im currently trying to build my tolerance from spicy foods. Some people exercise, I tame my tastebuds. My strategy was to dunk it in the tangy garlic aoli to cut the fire, but suprisingly I was able to tolerate it. The calamari was cooked perfectly, not ruberry and dusted with a light spicy coating. The serve was also generous enough to start off two hungry diners. 10 points for Fog.

My main was a tasmanian salmon with miso marinade, black sticky rice, stir fried choi sum with a coconut and kaffir lime broth ($32). I absolutely loved this dish and could not get enough, the black sticky rice with the coconut flavours brought the fleshy salmon to life. The thick cut of my salmon was cooked medium and still had that salty crispy crust. I've never had these flavours with plain ol' salmon before, and the sticky rice was a sure fire addition.

Our Mains.. together, they make a Steak-mon.

My interstate date orders the Rangers valley angus rump (280g) with creamy mash, hand churned butter, garlic and spinach ($37) Although I was to preoccupied with my salmon, I note that no complaints were voiced - and damn it looked like a great steak!

The service at Fog was superb, I would definitely come here again, if not to eat, then to drink. Mains are on the $30-$55 dollar bracket but they also have a smaller supper menu for the night owls and a bar that is open late. Considering it was the only meal I was to be having in Melbourne for the one day I was there, the school night splurge was okay. They also have a more casual lunch menu, but it is obvious that as the sun sets, Fog is one of those restuarants where the glamour goes up. My kinda place indeed.

p.s. Currently - The Empty Fridge Couple are travelling through Melbourne. Follow Gianna on Twitter, or Demos, to keep tabs on our adventures. Happy Easter!

Funny analogy with exercise, a guy in the office also said he wanted to build up his spiciness tolerance because "it is like working out". The meal you had there sounds and looks lovely, a bit pricey indeed but worth it.

An outstanding share! I've just forwarded this onto a co-worker who has been doing a little research on this. And he actually bought me dinner due to the fact that I found it for him... lol. So allow me to reword this.... Thank YOU for the meal!! But yeah, thanx for spending the time to discuss this subject here on your internet site.

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The Empty Fridge is all about drinking, dining exploits & the happy snaps that go with it.

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